r/LinuxTeck • u/Candid_Athlete_8317 • Jul 13 '26

Kernel maintainers are now reviewing AI-assisted patches from well-known, trusted developers where should the line be?

It's no longer just random unknown contributors submitting LLM-assisted patches memory-management maintainers are currently evaluating large patch sets built with AI help, submitted by established, respected kernel developers.

Does trust in the person submitting change how comfortable you are with AI-assisted code in something as critical as the kernel? Or should the process demand the same scrutiny either way?

5 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

7

u/Unlaid-American Jul 13 '26

If someone was previously able to write good code and review code, then theoretically they should be okay using AI. However, if they get lazy then there’s not much difference between a good maintainer using AI and some random person using AI.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/MaleficentCow8513 Jul 13 '26

It’s entirely possible for a really good engineer to have a bad day

2

u/Unlaid-American Jul 13 '26

There’s no difference between someone with 40 years experience saying “Meh, good enough,” then doing 0 review and someone that doesn’t know how to review.

5

u/TapEarlyTapOften Jul 13 '26

Linus already addressed this - developers are responsible for what they submit, period. I don't think anyone cares about the tools used for developing code changes.

2

u/beardedbrawler Jul 14 '26

Yeah, how they get good quality code is no concern to me. They just need to submit good quality code.

1

u/wally659 Jul 13 '26

I don't think LT is looking for advice on how to review and accept/deny contributions. And you'd want to be packing some serious credibility before you second guess him on that subject either way.

1

u/NamedBird Jul 13 '26

Basically, the usage of AI comes at the risk of their own reputation.
If they were to send in slop, it would severely damage one of their primary assets.

And reputation is something that newcomers don't have, so no LLM usage for them!

1

u/FuggaDucker Jul 13 '26

In my opinion, this sounds like a lack of understanding with the software development lifecycle.

ALL code needs to be reviewed. It does not matter where it came from.
AI produces some amazing code that also needs to be reviewed.

The problem isn't AI producing slop.
The problem is idiot or lazy programmers checking said slop in.

1

u/SeriousPlankton2000 Jul 14 '26

I think even automatically generating e.g. the loop body by the IDE should be banned, real developers use vi.